Social Media and Employee Theft

There isn’t anything I enjoy more than catching an employee stealing. Whether it be through a lengthy investigation, or through an anonymous tip, it’s very satisfying to me. The idea that you employ someone, put money in their pocket and a chance to succeed, but they steal from you, eats at the pit of my stomach. I can’t stand a thief and to me, it’s even worse when it’s an employee. Throughout my career in Loss Prevention, I’ve handling thousands of employee theft cases. Most don’t really stand out to me, but there are a handful of stories that I like to share when I have the chance.

Social media has really changed the way we communicate and share information. Personally, I rarely watch the 9 O’clock news anymore. I just log into Twitter, or Facebook and see if there is anything relevant to me. No more are our personal communications private. Using social media as a communication device gives the entire world visibility to everything you say, or do. So, if you’re a thief, you should probably know this. 

Recently I was having some issues with shoes in my store. I was constantly finding less expensive brands in the more expensive boxes. I started off finding one or two a month, so I chalked it up to a shipping error from the factory. As the weeks progressed, I began to find more and more, and I quickly realized I had a potential thief. I started running the sales for the cheaper shoes and noticed that one individual had purchased every single pair that I had found. Inside those boxes were no doubt the more expensive shoes, but who was this guy? I hadn’t a clue, and without any good leads, my case went cold. Until one of my employees helped me crack the case. 

I was closing the store one Saturday night and a few hours before closing time, I started making the rounds to make sure everyone was zoning and cleaning up so we could get out at a decent time. I noticed one of my footwear employees on the computer in the manager’s office, so I started walking that way. He noticed I was heading in his direction, so he quickly left the area. A little while later, I went to check sales on that same computer and noticed there was a window still open. It was that employee’s Facebook page. 

I maximized the screen, at first not realizing it was his page. What I saw shocked and amused me all at the same time. The window that opened was his private messages. Out of curiosity, I perused a bit. There, in the open, was a long conversation between my employee and a friend of his. The employee basically taking an order for shoes. My employee described how he would put the shoes in a cheaper pair, where to find them and even what cashier to check out with. I had found my shoe culprit, in the most awesome way possible. I printed out the page and a few days later, after letting his friend buy the stolen shoes, confronted the employee. He admitted to the several thousand dollars’ worth of theft and implicated several others in the store as doing the same. In total, I lost 5 employees. To this day, he has no idea that he led me to himself, and I have no plans on telling him!